Having read on this site the distance some students are travelling each day to and from school could I ask how parents and students cope with after school activities? I wondered if the GS's run more clubs during lunchtimes rather than after school so that students don't have to miss out? I wouldn't think public transport is very useful as students may be quite rural or not on a main route. I'm just thinking about the practicalities of sending my DD to a school that's great but may be up to 20 miles from home

I can only speak for Pates who run many clubs at lunchtime. The kids tend to eat lunch at break time which is quite long and late in the morning. They do have after school clubs as well. I guess it is down to parental choice wether to car share with others at clubs if possible, rely on public transport (maybe not that great to rural areas esp in the darker nights) or to pick up themselves. I have not found a problem as my DC's attend lunchtime clubs and only one after school one on a Friday when I do a pick up or car share.

They do have a lot of lunchtime activities, but there are afterschool activities as well. For instance, String Ensemble is Friday lunchtimes and Senior Orchestra after school Friday to 4:45pm. I know that many sports clubs also run after school.

Why not run them all at lunchtime? Well, there's only 5 lunchtimes a week, so having events after school allows children access to twice as many clubs. I suspect that many sports matches against other schools run after school hours.

Even living locally to the school I find myself picking the children up 2 days a week after their clubs, as we prefer them not to walk home along dark alleys (and they whinge about carrying large instruments home). There's even an instrumental lesson for one that runs after school one week in three (rotates with missing lessons), as they teacher can only start at 1pm.

We're happy with the situation - some inconvenience is OK to widen the opportunities open to our children, and compared with some non-school events, picking up is easy.

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